Nate Allen's Hawg Calls: Jon Gruden just not the right fit for Razorbacks

Nate Allen

Intoxicating though it might be to hire a former Super Bowl championship coach and current ESPN Monday Night Football analyst as Arkansas' head coach, here are some sobering counterpoints if Jon Gruden is or ever was a serious candidate to coach the Razorbacks.

First, Gruden's entire college coaching experience is two years as a Tennessee grad assistant, two years as quarterbacks coach at Southeast Missouri State and one year coaching tight ends at Pacific University.

Since 1990 he has either coached in the NFL or broadcast about the NFL.

That's a long, long time away from the limited college recruiting experience that he did have.

And it's a long, long time grilling all day into the night the NFL players whose livelihood depend on their football.

He would only have 20 hours per week to work with the Razorbacks during the academic year.

Those enormous, complicated NFL playbooks have to get a lot trimmer and schematically less complicated coaching the college game.

And all that time he was used to devoting just coaching the Tampa Bay Bucs and Oakland Raiders before that gets compromised vastly in college with recruiting, academics, representing the university at Razorback Clubs and various functions and a myriad of other tasks too numerous to mention.

A lot of NFL coaches, even the late Bill Walsh, the three-time Super Bowl champion Hall of Famer, discovered coaching college wasn't for them just like some great college coaches, including former Arkansas coaches Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino, not to mention Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Butch Davis, Bud Wilkinson and Dan Devine, discovered they couldn't convert to head coaching the pro game.

Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer - and Switzer seemed to catch constant criticism when he coached the Dallas Cowboys - remain the only head coaches with both Super Bowl and college national championship hardware in their trophy case.

The Gruden thing was fun while it lasted, particularly for those clever UA students who put together the "Hey Grude" song on You Tube, but it's likely better for Gruden and better for the Razorbacks if come 2013 he's either coaching in the NFL or broadcasting with ESPN again.

WHEN FOR NEW COACH?

The announcement of Arkansas' new coach may well be next week if it's not a Big 12 coach but formally will be beyond Dec. 1 if it's a Big 12 coach like say Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, TCU's Gary Patterson, Baylor's Art Briles or Texas Tech's Tommy Tuberville as the Big 12 plays games that weekend.

END OF THE ROAD

While most Razorbacks fans are ready for this nightmare 4-7, 2-5 SEC season to end with Friday's SEC game with LSU here, one who invested five years to fulfill his fifth-year senior season gets misty-eyed.

Quarterback Tyler Wilson, likely the third quarterback in the 2012 NFL draft had he opted for it, and taking a pounding afforded substandard protection while defenses continually come after him, still can't believe it all ends Friday.

He grew up in Greenwood dreaming to be a Razorback, invested three years backing up first Casey Dick (until mononucleosis caused him to be hardshipped) and Ryan Mallett and then had last year's 11-2 All-SEC first-team season until these 2012 Hogs hit the skids from when former Coach Bobby Petrino's motorcycle skidded into the ditch last April Fool's Day.

He says he'll never regret coming back.

"The last six months have been tough, but there's so much good that overwhelms all that other stuff," Wilson said. "It (his Arkansas experience) I will remember forever."

With the Hogs beyond bowl hope, there's just one memory left before Wilson takes his UA diploma with him to start preparing for the college all-star games, his next steps toward the NFL.

"I was eating dinner and it just kind of hits you," Wilson said of eyeing Friday's game. "This is my last go at it as well as for a number of people. It is an emotional game and I expect everybody to come to work this week and treat it like that."

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Nate Allen's Hawg Calls: Jon Gruden just not the right fit for Razorbacks

Intoxicating though it might be to hire a former Super Bowl championship coach and current ESPN Monday Night Football analyst as Arkansas' head coach, here are some sobering counterpoints if Jon